Ahoy! I'm speaking to you live from inside the learning curve of a big learning endeavor: learning a new language. I'd like to report what I'm finding here in the wide expanse and the rough terrain of climbing the learning curve.

As we get older, the brain gets more set in its ways. The neural pathways and patterns get deeper, easier to run and harder to change. "In a rut," the saying goes, although when the saying was popularized we had no idea it was so apt all the way down to the neural level.

Why do old brains get into ruts? It isn't because old neurons work differently then young neurons. It's only because we get out of practice of re-organizing the neural net. We forget to learn new things and to shake up the old neural net by finding ways in which it doesn't work well and re-wiring to fix them. Since it takes time and energy to re-org, we'd rather not re-org, if we don't have to re-org.

Ruts and re-orgs are mirrored in the social and science levels as well, since society and science is, in a way, just a product and an extension of our beliefs and neural wiring interacting with everyone else's.

Here's a neat TED talk that may be able to demonstrate an opportunity to re-org at both brain and social levels. Maybe it will shake up your neural net a little bit and give you the opportunity to re-organize your beliefs and/or thinking the way you do a spring cleaning in the garage. It also proposes a shake-up and clean-out of current scientific thinking around how humans evolved to be the way we are.

In what ways are humans different than our closest genetic relative, the ape? Do those differences offer us clues as to the history or environment that shaped those changes? Elaine Morgan says yes.

Enjoy her TED talk, "Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes."

Elaine is hereby nominated for being my new hero. :)

This is the best analysis and explanation of the transformation in learning needs that I have seen yet. An excellent white paper. If you are looking to understand not only why and how things are changing, but also the opportunities for better learning, read this paper and then read it again. The opportunities this paper brings into view are both from the learner and the provider roles.

Highlights include:

• the three stages of learning agility;
• leadership behaviors at each stage;
• the five moments of need for learning;
• current trends, and risks & threats.

An outstanding resource. Get it, print it, read it, know it. The map for learning practices in the next ten years for professionals, for business leaders and for educational providers is right here.

THE INTERNET is simply the most powerful learning tool ever known in the history of humankind.

The trick is learning how to use it. It's pretty new, so everyone is still learning how to use it. It just takes some hours of experimentation and exploration to get your bearings and get your "net learning skills."

The great thing about learning using the Internet is that it supports any learning style. You like reading? You got it. Learn better by watching video? Do it. You like audio best, you say, with your iPod while traveling or being outside? No problem.

The critical thing is to learn how to learn using the Internet, and that will be different for different people. Take the time to explore the tools, experiment and discover what works for you. Then, apply those learning techniques to everything you do. Aim to learn something everyday. It's the 21st-century way.

Here are some great learning tools and resources to include on your journey.

All I can say is that if I had had these tools and resources when I was 11 years old, not only would my teacher have been out of a job, I would have been completing college by age 15. The impact of the incredible learning power and speed of the Internet on earth and society hasn't even been imagined yet. It is a completely new paradigm for learning - and we have barely scratched the surface of what we can do with it.

The 21st century is going to look very, very different than the 20th century. Get learning!

...more to come!

Published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 31, 2010

Divided Attention: In an age of classroom multitasking, scholars probe the nature of learning and memory, By David Glenn.

A worthwhile read citing both studies and anecdotal evidence from college professors about the lowered comprehension, test performance and reasoning capabilities of students who multi-task while in class.

Jack Mezirow, a professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, has proposed that adults learn best if presented with what he calls a “disorienting dilemma,” or something that “helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you’ve acquired.”

Article from the New York Times, By BARBARA STRAUCH
Published: December 29, 2009